Bus Service Alerts

[BusHunter]

Boy the #77 sure is messed up today. I'm on a three pack of buses with no bus behind it for 30 minutes. This bus is actually about 7 minutes behind the pack. He says he's only going to blue line which means at least a 37 minute gap east of there. Mr CTA came on and said there is a festival on this route. No kidding. I wonder if the drivers are invited!! Lol!!

So stay off the #77 unless you like waiting!!

[Busjack]

...Mr CTA came on and said there is a festival on this route. No kidding. I wonder if the drivers are invited!! Lol!!

So stay off the #77 unless you like waiting!!

Only reference is that the Belmont-Sheffield Music Festival is on May 23-24, 2015. So, maybe the bus is 1-1/2 months early.

[BusHunter]

#54 has a whopper of a gap in service. I'm on #1004 right. There is no bus behind #1004 for 50 minutes. I didn't pass a bus all the way from 24th to division. There's 4 buses going sb between division and armitage and the supervisor was sitting in his car at north. Hopefully he's doing something about it. There was this construction delay that has cicero one lane from chicago to west end sb I guess that started this. Boy if they did do ashland brt the locals would just implode if this is any simulation of what would happen.

[garmon757]

#54 has a whopper of a gap in service. I'm on #1004 right. There is no bus behind #1004 for 50 minutes. I didn't pass a bus all the way from 24th to division. There's 4 buses going sb between division and armitage and the supervisor was sitting in his car at north. Hopefully he's doing something about it. There was this construction delay that has cicero one lane from chicago to west end sb I guess that started this. Boy if they did do ashland brt the locals would just implode if this is any simulation of what would happen.

It was daylight savings' fault!!! Just kidding!!!

[BusHunter]

Ashland has a few problems out around roosevelt to cermak sb. They have Damen closed for construction and 18th so the damen traffic is using ashland too as well as the 18th and damen street buses. Cermak/Ashland is a good spot to watch buses though. It now has 5 routes going through the same intersection.

 

[jajuan]

Ashland has a few problems out around roosevelt to cermak sb. They have Damen closed for construction and 18th so the damen traffic is using ashland too as well as the 18th and damen street buses. Cermak/Ashland is a good spot to watch buses though. It now has 5 routes going through the same intersection.

Yeah whatever is going on along Ashland started this morning apparently because NB Ashland buses were getting the delays this morning as I was waiting trying to get back north heading home.

[Sam92]

Don't know where to put this but I was nosing around the site and discovered that now the #10 muesem bus will not have it's contract renewed and will only operate memorial day thru labor day with no other service during the rest of the year starting 2016 so similar to the #130. #128 is getting renewed for 3 more years

[Busjack]

17 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

Don't know where to put this but I was nosing around the site and discovered that now the #10 muesem bus will not have it's contract renewed and will only operate memorial day thru labor day with no other service during the rest of the year starting 2016 so similar to the #130. #128 is getting renewed for 3 more years

The Museum must have figured the bus was not worth its money. There always are #6 and #55.

But what's your source, as I don't see anything on the Alerts or #10 page?

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

The Museum must have figured the bus was not worth its money. There always are #6 and #55.

But what's your source, as I don't see anything on the Alerts or #10 page?

Very good question, I don't see anything up for #10 in this regard. The museum can't say this isn't worth the money because I see too quite a number of #10 buses reaching downtown from the museum loaded up with nice crowds. Same as #2 and #6 northbound. Unless the premise is that #10 is more worth the money invested during summer hours. 

[Sam92]

Its a proposal.

[Sam92]

9 hours ago, Busjack said:

The Museum must have figured the bus was not worth its money. There always are #6 and #55.

But what's your source, as I don't see anything on the Alerts or #10 page?

 

8 hours ago, jajuan said:

Very good question, I don't see anything up for #10 in this regard. The museum can't say this isn't worth the money because I see too quite a number of #10 buses reaching downtown from the museum loaded up with nice crowds. Same as #2 and #6 northbound. Unless the premise is that #10 is more worth the money invested during summer hours. 

I just went back and searched #10 in the engine because I ran into it yesterday trying to find some sort of text or PowerPoint presentation regarding what @Busjack mentioned about #26 and #95 because my data is  too slow for the video. And BTW is #95 starting 6/20 as well?

[Busjack]

56 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

And BTW is #95 starting 6/20 as well?

Just answered in the other topic. Video said Sept.

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, Sam92 said:

Its a proposal.

Ah so this was a proposal discussed at the last meeting from three days ago. My question got answered here. The Museum is pulling away from renewing the contract, but from the wording of this, it appears the CTA at least sees that this route does do the job during the summer months as my observations tend to support. I know when I leave the Museum on summer afternoons after a nice outing, I gravitate toward this route or also the NB #2 if it's a weekday because either of these gets me into downtown quicker than #6 without the tour of northern Hyde Park, and definitely faster than using #55 and the Red Line for this purpose. 

[Busjack]

19 minutes ago, jajuan said:

Ah so this was a proposal discussed at the last meeting from three days ago.

It wasn't on the agenda of the board committee  meeting. Maybe next month.

This was just a public hearing notice, although, as frequently noted, only perfunctory as far as CTA is concerned.

[jajuan]

45 minutes ago, Busjack said:

It wasn't on the agenda of the board committee  meeting. Maybe next month.

This was just a public hearing notice, although, as frequently noted, only perfunctory as far as CTA is concerned.

Thanks. I saw the June 6 date and thought maybe it was tied to the board meeting as well. 

[jajuan]

Well WB buses on Adams have resumed their regular routing as of this past Friday with the Adams Street Bridge having reopened, well according to the local news a couple of lanes on the bridge opening. The obvious modifications to post construction regular routing of course being that the 1, 28, 121 and 151 will operate on Clinton instead of Canal between Adams and Jackson due to serving the Union Station Transit Center. The alerts appear to communicate that in addition the 1 and 121 will pull into the terminal instead of doing their layover parallel to it. Andre or one of our other operator members can confirm if that understanding is correct though both of those may still layover parallel to the terminal instead of pulling into it. The other obvious modification is of course the 156 terminating at the Transit Center instead of Desplaines/Harrison.

[BusHunter]

Probably the #121 and #1 will not change or they risk pinning in the #151's and #156's. But if cta says they will enter the terminal maybe they will. I can't help but think how that will throw off the signage they got that denotes curbside service but signs can be covered up.

[jajuan]

2 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Probably the #121 and #1 will not change or they risk pinning in the #151's and #156's. But if cta says they will enter the terminal maybe they will. I can't help but think how that will throw off the signage they got that denotes curbside service but signs can be covered up.

I just saw a map attached to a different alert that shows the 1 staying on Jackson parallel to the terminal. So it's a safe bet that the 121 will do the same. They should have attached that map to the other alerts that include the 1 and 121 because the wording of the routings makes it sound like the 1 and 121 pull into the terminal.

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, jajuan said:

I just saw a map attached to a different alert that shows the 1 staying on Jackson parallel to the terminal.

All of the alerts refer to the "Union Station Transit Center" not to the "terminal." Apparently the curb is part of the USTC.

 

Only question if there is any significance to:

Southbound #1 and #28 and northbound #151 and #156 buses will begin/end their trips at Jackson/Canal, then resume their normal route on Jackson.

as opposed to Union Station being the timepoint on the schedule.

Also, whether this means that the #28  trips that now end at Adams and Wacker go through to the USTC.

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

All of the alerts refer to the "Union Station Transit Center" not to the "terminal." Apparently the curb is part of the USTC.

 

Only question if there is any significance to:

Southbound #1 and #28 and northbound #151 and #156 buses will begin/end their trips at Jackson/Canal, then resume their normal route on Jackson.

as opposed to Union Station being the timepoint on the schedule.

Also, whether this means that the #28  trips that now end at Adams and Wacker go through to the USTC.

Well Union Station Transit Center is still shown as a stop on the 151 through BusTracker, so that would seem to indicate that buses that went through the Transit Center still do as shown through the map I referenced above. They built the terminal for those routes, so it wouldn't make sense to pull them out from the terminal after reopening the Adams Bridge and reinstating the more direct route to get to that terminal. It just wouldn't have seemed very likely under that circumstance that CTA was going to have three bus routes (28, 151 and 156) off Adams doing layovers on the street along with the two already on the street and mucking up the street traffic when the terminal is right there even if CTA management at times does some really dumb things at times. On the flip side though, 151 and 156 had their own bus lanes in the terminal and could theoretically share with another route similar to how 28 and 124 have done so. So the wording referencing the Transit Center brought up the initial confusion of if the 1 and 121 would also run through the terminal rather than the on the street as opposed whether routes that were inside the terminal would now be on the street. At any rate, that map clarified what they meant though you have to blow up the whole web page to see it clearly. Buses that were going into the terminal will keep doing so and those that were on the street parallel to the terminal will stay on the street.

[Sam92]

5 hours ago, Busjack said:

All of the alerts refer to the "Union Station Transit Center" not to the "terminal." Apparently the curb is part of the USTC.

 

Only question if there is any significance to:

Southbound #1 and #28 and northbound #151 and #156 buses will begin/end their trips at Jackson/Canal, then resume their normal route on Jackson.

as opposed to Union Station being the timepoint on the schedule.

Also, whether this means that the #28  trips that now end at Adams and Wacker go through to the USTC.

Well the Union Station routes got updated schedule for the 24th. 28 still has W trips and 151 still has majority W trips so it looks like nothing changed really except for the routing. So i dont know where the 151's going back north are coming from but then again that looks like the time frame where 151 switches from 40 ft to artics so maybe the 151 back north is mainly interlines from other north park routes from what math22 shows. Btw I remember you wondered where 146 Randolph to Grace came from; from maths22's tracker, looks like they interline with 148's similar to the way 145/148 does. 

[Busjack]

8 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Well the Union Station routes got updated schedule for the 24th

You are correct. There weren't any notices for advance schedules, just that the date on the schedule was "Effective February 24, 2017." While meaning that speculation over what reopening the bridge means should be moot, it does leave open whether this is how it will look after the pick.

Since I had quoted the Feb.24 schedule, which has the timepoints of Union Station, the Jackson-Canal notation on the alert must be meaningless.

[jajuan]

10 hours ago, Busjack said:

You are correct. There weren't any notices for advance schedules, just that the date on the schedule was "Effective February 24, 2017." While meaning that speculation over what reopening the bridge means should be moot, it does leave open whether this is how it will look after the pick.

Since I had quoted the Feb.24 schedule, which has the timepoints of Union Station, the Jackson-Canal notation on the alert must be meaningless.

On that final point, I was thinking about that last night and surmise that the Jackson-Canal notation on the alert may have been meant more for the 1 and 121 because of their apparent continued layover on the street parallel to the Transit Center. those two don't have a Union Station bus stop according to there BusTracker route traces and individual bus stop lists linked to their route pages on the CTA website. Their first bus stop after their layover is Jackson-Canal. So in that regard, the Jackson-Canal notation is shown not to be meaningless after all. However, you are correct that the notation is meaningless for the 28, 151 and 156 as BusTracker and their bus stop lists on the website both show that they apparently do still enter the Transit Center. 

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, jajuan said:

that the Jackson-Canal notation on the alert may have been meant more for the 1 and 121 because of their apparent continued layover on the street parallel to the Transit Center.

But unless they are saying they aren't picking up passengers on the curb at the transit center, and unless they are saying that they aren't honoring the timepoint at Union Station, it is meaningless. It might be a semantic thing that the transit center curb is at Jackson and Canal, but then so should be the terminal for inbound trips.

[jajuan]

17 hours ago, Busjack said:

But unless they are saying they aren't picking up passengers on the curb at the transit center, and unless they are saying that they aren't honoring the timepoint at Union Station, it is meaningless. It might be a semantic thing that the transit center curb is at Jackson and Canal, but then so should be the terminal for inbound trips.

They are not picking up passengers at the curb immediately after the turn if that's where you're going. The bus stop is on the street on Jackson at Canal on the near side of the intersection at the light. That's the next service stop for passengers after leaving Adams/Canal. So the notation is not meaningless. The Union Station timepoint for the 1 and 121 therefore would be two different locations depending on direction apparently. It's the Adams/Canal bus stop toward the train station and the Jackson/Canal bus stop leaving it. So the issue is what CTA means by Union Station in the schedules. But notation is meant for the 1 and 121. You are right it is a semantic thing though. Union Station Transit Center means the street for 1 and 121, but means the actual terminal for the 28, 151 and 156 on the alerts. Same thing for Union Station on the schedules. This would not be the first time we've run into an ambiguity with CTA bus route terminus points not always being the layover position as well. Remember BH and I had a similar discussion regarding the 11 because of buses doing their layover at the WB Fullerton Red/Brown/Purple Line bus stop even though bus stop signs and the buses themselves stating service to Fullerton/Halsted. BH thought the layover point should have been where the 74 does layovers as a result.